Amerks set dubious record

The Abbotsford Heat burns Rochester by winning Game 7 at the Blue Cross Arena, 2-0.

Craig Potter, staff writer

In the previous 73-year history of the American Hockey League, no team that held a 3-1 lead in the Calder Cup playoffs lost Games 6 and 7 at home.

That is until Tuesday night at the Blue Cross Arena in the Rochester Community War Memorial.

The Abbotsford Heat blanked the Rochester Americans, 2-0, to win the North Division semifinal series, 4-3.

Rochester held a 3-1 lead in the series by winning Game 2 in Rochester, and Games 3 and 4 in Abbotsford, before falling in Game 5 in Abbotsford.
The series shifted back to Rochester from British Columbia on Sunday night where the Heat notched a 5-1 victory to even the best-of-seven series at 3-3.
Abbotsford moves on to face regular season North Division champion Hamilton Bulldogs on Thursday in Hamilton.
The Amerks will be on summer vacation.
Turnovers once again cost Rochester as Brett Sutter created a turnover in the first period that led to a blast by John Lammers past Amerk goalie Tyler Plante.
The visitors outshot the Amerks 17-3 in the stanza.
Abbotsford added an insurance goal in the second period off another turnover. Olivier Latendresse received a pass wide open in the slot and had a breakaway on Plante, that he buried.
The Amerks coach Benoit Groulx's game-plan went out the window 50 seconds into the contest.
Groulx inserted veteran defenseman and captain, Rory Fitzpatrick, as he had to sit veteran winger Graham Mink to make room. Teams are permitted to dress only five veterans and one mid-range vet (Clay Wilson) each game.
Groulx also dressed defenseman John de Grey and forward Maxime Gratchev while he sat policeman winger Steve MacIntyre and injured rookie defenseman Carl Hudson.
The plan was to move defenseman Clay Wilson to forward, while Fitzpatrick and de Grey would fill out the six defensive slots.
However, Fitzpatrick, the Irondequoit native, separated his shoulder when he fell just 50 seconds into the first period after a check along the boards.
"It's very unfortunate. He's definitely our leader," said Amerk goalie Tyler Plante. "To lose him right off the bat definitely wasn't fun."
Groulx added, "We wanted to have more speed upfront, that's why we decided to put Wilson there. First shift Fitzpatrick popped out his shoulder so the plan was basically out the window right there.
"We were fortunate to dress seven defensemen."
Wilson moved back to the blue line following the injury.
"Even strength, their speed, their discipline, and their commitment was better than us," Groulx said. "We don't deserve to win when you lose three at home. They outplayed us 5-on-5.
"When you're losing you've got to learn. Obviously, there's a lesson in that series and we've got to learn from it and change that."
Some of the 3,159 fans in attendance were yelling at Groulx and some of the players to get off the ice.
"I think that shows how passionate our fans are, and they want this team to win," Groulx said. "This team hasn't been in the final four for quite a bit."
Rochester last advanced to the second round ofthe playoffs in the 2004-05 season.
"Our fans want to support a winning team,"Groulx continued. "This year we were able to get the team into the playoffs (for the first time in three seasons). We have many, many guys who are first time in the playoffs. Most of them struggled.

"Other than Mike York, many of them had a rough time for different reasons against the speed, against the intensity, against the toughness. That's why I'm saying we have to learn from this."
Several of the Rochester players were sitting quietly at their stalls in the locker room, a few still partly in uniform, reflecting on what had happened, losing two straight at home.
"It's frustrating," said Jeff Taffe. "There are no excuses for that. It's going to be a learning lesson for some of these younger guys. Never take a team for granted, especially one that works as hard as they do. You know, I think this will stick with guys for a while.
"Maybe we got a little comfortable there when we were scoring eight goals and six goals (in Games 3 and 4 in Abbotsford), and put it in cruise control, and that's not how you win games."
Amerks Vice President of Hockey Operations Ted Nolan was asked his assessment of failing to win either Game 6 or 7 at home to advance.
"That's one of the things you play for the whole season long is home ice advantage, and we didn't take advantage of it," Nolan said. "The first game here we didn't play too well. We played really well the next three games, then all of a sudden our game went south on us for whatever reason. We just didn't compete. We looked out of synch.
"Those things happen, but unfortunately they happened at the wrong time. We'll have to evaluate, look at what's wrong; some of the pieces we have to get in here to make us better."
Craig Potter can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext 351, or e-mail: cpotter@messengerpostmedia.com

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